


soulfriend (the other half)

by leovaldez



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Best Friends, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Idiots in Love, M/M, Post-The Trials of Apollo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:06:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29195778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leovaldez/pseuds/leovaldez
Summary: Leo liked math. Jason Grace just happened to be the math problem Leo couldn’t figure out.
Relationships: Jason Grace & Leo Valdez, Jason Grace/Leo Valdez
Comments: 7
Kudos: 39





	soulfriend (the other half)

**Author's Note:**

> title comes from me asking donnacha (💖) what anam cara means, and i utterly adored the way they talked about it, the way i adore everything they say mmm

Jason was an embarrassing friend, but he was honest. Leo knew this fact like he knew the laws of Physics, and he knew Festus’ favorite flavor of Tabasco, and he knew how many seconds it took for Piper to U-Turn from entering her cabin to hang out for five minutes longer. That’s why, when Jason says what he said, Leo didn’t bat an eye:

 _“We’re best friends because we’ll never be able to escape from each other,”_ Jason had laughed, and then his smile went soft, _“but if we did, I’ll find you and make sure you remember that.”_

His hair was probably on fire. Leo patted it just in case. Jason was looking down at Camp-Half Blood from the top of Jason’s cabin. It took a lot of bribing for the Furies to not peck out their eyes, but it was worth it. 

“Stop getting sentimental on me,” Leo finally said. He feigned a yawn, stretching wildly. “It’s too late for your wise hours.”

“Sorry,” Jason smiled at him. “I was thinking aloud. It’s nice seeing you.”

“Yeah, I’m a nice sight to see.” 

“You’re something.”

“And you’re _cruel_ ,” Leo mock-gasped. He tore off the soda tab from his can, fiddling with it in his fingers. “I missed you too,” he muttered, pulling his arm back and throwing the tab as far as he could. “Not in a weird way, but in a totally normal I-died-and-so-did-you-but-things-are-good-now kind of way. You know what I mean.”

Jason let out a low whistle at the throw. “I think it’s safe to say I’m the only one who knows.”

“I wouldn’t put it past the others,” Leo joked. “Dying and coming back doesn’t seem _too_ out of place for Percy and Annabeth.”

“Perhaps.”

Leo turned his head, and Jason’s fingers were hovering there. He held out his hand, and Jason dropped his own soda tab in Leo’s palm to throw. 

“You always know what I need,” Leo grinned and threw it again. This time it flew while it was too dark to see, they both heard the light _clink_ against Hera’s cabin. 

“I know you,” Jason said simply, and Leo was almost sure that he caught on fire then, but he instead hesitantly returned Jason’s smile and crushed what was left of his soda can. It wasn’t even that big of a deal. Jason was just _like_ that. He said weird stuff all the time, and Leo was left in limbo trying to interpret Jason’s Jason-ness, and this wasn’t that different. 

Leo decided to take it as it was. “Since when do you know me?” He threw his can at the Hera cabin and instantly regretted it. It falls somewhere into the grass, and the Fury nearby screeches at them. 

“Don’t know,” Jason shrugged. “For a while now. Maybe forever. Maybe we’ve always known each other and tried not to.” He shook his empty soda can out at Leo, who again was hesitant but took it and crushed the can under his palms. Jason made a noise from the back of his throat. “Or maybe not.”

“You’re strangely metaphorical tonight- it’s creepy. And what’d I tell you? Too late for Wise Jason Hours,” Leo grunted and contorted the metal in his hands. They could get smelted for something later, but it gave him something to do. Leo was sure Jason did know that, and that’s what gets to him.

Leo constantly found himself building up this idea that Jason knew him better than anyone else. That was his best friend, but it was different than Festus and different than Piper. It was just _different_. 

Leo didn’t really care to understand, but for Jason, there just wasn’t a word. 

Jason knew him how the birds knew the clouds, the fish knew the current, and lava knew the creases down a volcano side. Leo couldn’t fathom the way his best friend was too familiar to him.

Leo liked math. He understood it. There was often a simple answer and a logical way to approach an equation. When there wasn’t, Leo relished in the most creative and nonsensical way of breaking it down to its fundamentals and absolutely making it his own. It was a sentiment that Leo shared for how they approached most things. Jason Grace just happened to be the math problem Leo couldn’t figure out. Did Leo even want to?

The can tore in his hands, and Leo set it down. He was growing antsy. When Leo was nervous, he messed up, and when he messed up, bad things happened to the people around him. He glanced at Jason, who glanced at him. Leo patted his hair again just in case. 

He didn’t know what to do. 

Jason, it seemed, _did_ because Jason _always_ knew what to do. Standing up, Jason zipped up his hoodie and offered Leo a hand. “It’s getting really late. You want to go in?”

“Not really,” Leo’s mouth spoke faster than his brain. He almost slapped himself when Jason blinked at him and frowned. “What?” Leo’s really stupid sometimes. “I thought you knew me so well.”

“You got me there,” Jason said, sitting back down. Leo didn’t know if he was aware of it, but Jason was sitting much closer, and now it was _all_ Leo could notice. He was hyper-aware of the centimeters between them, mentally counting out the space it takes to create contact.

“And you can’t know me,” Leo continued. “I’m unknowable.”

Jason’s grin was lopsided, something Leo usually sees in the mirror. “Are you sure about that?”

“Duh,” said Leo, faltering just so.

Jason elbowed him, and Leo scoffed and flicked him, and Jason gave a kinda terrifying snarl and shoved him, and Leo shoved back. Curling his toes into his flip-flops, Leo hopelessly tried to remember a time where Jason hadn’t been a permanent annoyance in his life and mind. The only things he could come up with weren’t worth remembering. 

He stuck his tongue at Jason, swatting at him. His knee bounced against Jason’s. 

“I know you too, man,” Leo told him. “Wish you came with a user manual, and you sure ain’t Festus, but I know you too.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “I don’t doubt it.”

He gaped. Leo couldn’t even come up with a joke to recover from that, and he practically felt his brain reboot. After a beat of silence, Jason dropped his hand on the roofing. The tip of his pinky curled over Leo’s and stayed there. The warmth of his hand wasn’t lost on Leo. 

“Dude,” Leo finally recovered with a dramatic sigh. “I can’t believe I’m friends with you.”

“You’re telling me.”

“You like being my friend. That’s strange. You’re weird. I’ll ask Will what’s wrong with you and hope there’s a cure.”

“Fingers crossed they have something for hair fire too.” 

Leo scowled at him, face hot, as he patted out his hair, and Jason started laughing at him again in the way only Jason could manage to do.

**Author's Note:**

> sometimes i don't think about vg but sometimes i listen to some music while a little tipsy and i get off the phone after a two hour call of nothing with like, this dude i fell in love with but never quite fell out of love with and i'm like, "yeah okay" and i turn on my computer
> 
> anyway, it always annoys me to go to the jason/leo tag and the first thing i see is one of those fics that are tagged with a million ships and updates every/every other day. idk if anyone else feels this way tho but ahhhh!!!!
> 
> who cares tho lol i just scroll past with an eye roll its not that bad heh. anyway, thank u, have a good day!!! 💕💕💕


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